Archive for the ‘idiocy’ Category

New York City plans to enact a far-reaching ban on the sale of large sodas and other sugary drinks at restaurants, movie theaters and street carts, in the most ambitious effort yet by the Bloomberg administration to combat rising obesity.

Obviously Mike thinks it’s up to him to do something, no matter how meaningless, to bring in more government regulation,

The proposed ban would affect virtually the entire menu of popular sugary drinks found in delis, fast-food franchises and even sports arenas, from energy drinks to pre-sweetened iced teas. The sale of any cup or bottle of sweetened drink larger than 16 fluid ounces — about the size of a medium coffee, and smaller than a common soda bottle — would be prohibited under the first-in-the-nation plan, which could take effect as soon as next March.

The measure would not apply to diet sodas, fruit juices, dairy-based drinks like milkshakes, or alcoholic beverages; it would not extend to beverages sold in grocery or convenience stores.

So, after all, to answer my question in the post title, it looks like you’ll still be able to get a Big Gulp, if they sell them in Manhattan?

What will happen is that businesses will offer free refills, people will spend more money, and producers will find a way around it, as it happened with candy bars,

The company has replaced the King Size Snickers with the so-called “2toGo,” which is two bars in one package. Each of the bars is 220 calories. The company said the package can be resealed “to save one for later.”

By the way,
I have had chronic hypoglycemia for well over a decade, and do not tolerate anything with any sugar added, so I simply do not have anything with added sugar. The thing is, it’s up to you, not to Mike Bloomberg, to decide what you eat. Upcoming sugar taxes are even more of an insult than these “bans on sugary drinks”, since the government spends huge amounts of money in sugar subsidies, including corn syrup.

In a speech before the Daimler Trucks North America manufacturing plant in Charlotte, N.C. today, the president delivered his answer to rising gas prices: He wants to increase the $7,500 tax credit for alternative-energy vehicles to $10,000, earmark $1 billion to reward cities that provide infrastructure for such vehicles, earmark an additional $650 million for a research program to increase the range and decrease the price of the vehicles, and repeal $4 billion of tax incentives for oil and gas companies.

The actor Sean Penn has weighed into the Falklands dispute, urging Britain to join UN-sponsored talks over what he called “the Malvinas Islands of Argentina”.

Penn met Argentina’s president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, in Buenos Aires and said: “It’s necessary that these diplomatic talks happen between the United Kingdom and Argentina. I think that the world today is not going to tolerate any kind of ludicrous and archaic commitment to colonialist ideology.”

If only the world would not tolerate any kind of ludicrous and archaic ideology from idiot actors who ignore the fact that the Falklanders consider themselves Brits.

Warren Buffett, the third wealthiest man in the world with a net worth of around $80 billion, is demanding the U.S. government make the rich like him pay higher taxes and says they should no longer be protected like endangered “spotted owls.”

Last year my federal tax bill — the income tax I paid, as well as payroll taxes paid by me and on my behalf — was $6,938,744. That sounds like a lot of money. But what I paid was only 17.4 percent of my taxable income — and that’s actually a lower percentage than was paid by any of the other 20 people in our office. Their tax burdens ranged from 33 percent to 41 percent and averaged 36 percent.

Well, I’m so glad Warren rounded up to the nearest dollar. However, to the best of my knowledge, Buffett has never made his tax returns public, so who knows?

Warren, dearest, you can stop bellyaching and start preaching by example: Give ALL your money to the federal government. Every red cent. I asked you to do it last year, and you’ve kept me waiting.

Step up to the plate, Warren.

I beg you.

UPDATE,
Here’s the address, Warren,

Gifts to the United States U.S. Department of the Treasury Credit Accounting Branch 3700 East-West Highway, Room 6D37 Hyattsville, MD 20782

Busy day here, while everyone is blogging about Pres. Obama’s budget speech.

However, an equally interesting subject is this Manifesto For Conscious Men, which starts with an apology for being men. You can watch the YouTube in its full unmanly self-conscious groveling glory here.

Conceived, redacted and read by a guy name Gay. Really.

The whole thing is not only wrong from the get-go (starting with that photo of Dante Gabriel Rosetti’s Beata Beatrix – yes, I know my Pre-Raphaelites – on the Facebook page), it totally misses the point. As Bill Whittle says in the Trifecta,

The antidote to brutal men is not weak, femminine men. The antidote to brutal men is strong, good men.

Now, whether the Manifesto is actually “the most elaborate pick-up line ever”, I’ll leave for Citizen Renegade to decide.